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The OIM is a civilian oversight agency that was created by the City of Denver and began its work on August 1, 2005. The OIM is staffed by six employees (five full time and one part time) including three attorneys: the Monitor, the Senior Deputy Monitor and the Deputy Monitor. In order to perform our outreach and research functions, the OIM is also staffed by a Community Relations Ombudsman and a Research Analyst. The staff’s work is supported by the OIM’s Office Manager.

Mission & Responsibilities

The mission of the Office of the Independent Monitor is to provide fair and objective oversight of the Denver Police and Sheriff Departments. The Monitor’s mission is directed at transparency and accountability of Denver’s sworn Safety personnel and the policies which govern them.

The OIM is responsible for:

Actively monitoring and participating in investigations of sworn personnel in the City and County of Denver’s Police and Sheriff Departments;

Making recommendations to the Manager of Safety, Chief of Police and Director of Corrections (who are responsible for discipline within the departments) regarding administrative action, including possible discipline for such uniformed personnel; and

Making recommendations regarding broader policy issues.

Complaints should be filed in a timely manner in order to ensure efficient handling and quality investigations. Commendations for good police work are always welcome.

For information on the other component of civilian oversight of law enforcement in Denver, the Citizen Oversight Board, go to www.denvergov.org/cob.

Monitoring the Denver Police Department (DPD) and the Denver Sheriff Department (DSD) internal affairs assignment decision making processes to ensure fairness and consistency in the handling of citizen and internally-initiated complaints and investigations;

Monitoring and making recommendations regarding formal DPD and DSD internal investigations to ensure the investigations are thorough, fair and complete;

Monitoring and making recommendations on DPD and DSD findings after investigations and the imposition of discipline after sustained findings are made. (This task includes the monitoring of Disciplinary Review Board deliberations and recommendations);

Ensuring the citizen complaint process is accessible to the entire community and making community members aware of how their complaints were handled and why; and,

Improving the timeliness of the entire complaint handling and disciplinary processes for DPD and DSD.